The latest life expectancy data for the UK is out and reveals a north-south divide in ages of death - of four-years.

The data from the Office for National Statistics shows that for men in the south-east of England it is 79.4 years, while in Scotland the figure is 75.4, according to the Office for National Statistics. For women the gap is slightly less: 83.3 in south-east and south-west England against 80.1 in Scotland.

Health areas with lowest life expectancy are Greater Glasgow and Clyde (which has a lower rate than Albania for men), Hartlepool, Western Isles, Liverpool and Blackburn with Darwen. The pattern in the geographic age gaps remains similar to those of previous years, showing just how stubborn social and economic inequalities remain.

Overall we are living longer. Life expectancy at birth across the UK as a whole improved from 76.5 to 77.9 years for men between 2003-05 and 2007-09. In the same period it went up from 80.9 to 82 for women.

Other key facts include:

• The gap between the health areas with the highest and lowest life expectancies at birth increased over the period from 9.8 to 11.3 years for males and from 8.2 to 10.1 years for females. At age 65, the gap increased from 6.7 to 8.5 years for men and from 6.3 to 8.3 yearsfor women.

We were interested in how the data looked - and thanks to Alasdair Rae we've now mapped those changes across the country's health boards - sorry we don't have these for Northern Ireland yet. The international comparisons are from the UN population division.